Despite an absolute beauty from red-hot Christian Pulisic, the United States Men’s National Team (USMNT) lost to Germany 1-3 on Saturday afternoon in Connecticut. The loss displayed the gap that still remains between the best the US has to offer against that of traditionally successful European countries.
The US is set to host the World Cup in three short years, and the amount of Americans playing in the top leagues around the world has increased. But results like this – and the disappointing Gold Cup finish this summer – raises curiosity over the US’s performance in men’s soccer compared to other sports.
On the world stage, the United States either dominates or experiences a high level of success in almost every sport. The US has the most Olympic medals of all time, gold or otherwise. The US Women’s National Team (USWNT), despite recent stumbles, have contributed to that dominance with four World Cups and four gold medals.
Yet, the USMNT has failed to make the semifinals of a World Cup since the first ever tournament in 1930. Likewise, their Olympic record consists of a silver and bronze medal in 1904, a fourth place finish in 2000, and failing to qualify since the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
They have since qualified for the games in Paris in 2024, so not all hope is lost. It’s also important to note that from 1992 on the tournament has required rosters to have all but three players be under the age of 23. This often serves as a reflection of the development of youth internationals around the world, which will be important later.
Considering the historic athletic dominance within the US, it seems unreasonable that the USMNT is struggling this much to put together any semblance of sustained success at any level.
There are reasons, both historic and systemic, that come from a seemingly obvious place, but maybe haven’t been delved into deep enough to fully understand why.
Historically, soccer has never had a strong foothold within American culture, and there was a distinct period of time between the 1970s and the 1980s where that difference grew to the seemingly insurmountable distance that is still being chipped away at today.
Over those two decades, the NFL and NBA each experienced exponential boosts in popularity and market share, laying the foundation for the way we experience those leagues now. At this time, the main professional soccer presence was the NASL, which brings a wealth of soccer history not to be ashamed of, but never found a way to keep up with the traditional American sports.
The 70s NFL merger and the beginning of the Stern era of the NBA in the 80s, people across the country were seeing the sports that were starting to connect with their local communities get capitalized on and made into irresistible products of consumption. That local connection was key, and paved the way for one of the bigger separators of these sports.
At this time, most of the stars being heralded by the NFL and NBA were American, with stories that people in small American communities can relate to and rally behind. The leagues used this sentiment to grow their exposure by making these sports as accessible as possible to as many communities as possible, so long as the associations remained the face of these sports as a whole.
All it would take is a basketball and a hoop, or a football and a field, and kids from all different communities, especially low income ones, could take part in the game that they watched these American heroes participate in on the professional level.
Meanwhile, the NASL couldn’t do the same with soccer. One of the impressive parts of the league’s success was the stars it attracted. Franz Beckenbauer, George Best, Johan Cruyff, Pele – all global legends of the game that headlined the NASL for many years.
While it brought crowds and short term spikes in profits, it couldn’t shake the connotation of soccer being more of a European or South American sport. The international image on the game of soccer gave it the reputation of being pricey and inaccessible, failing to cement as strong roots in American communities as the other sports were.
With this, it would be easy to understand why cities were more interested in bidding for expansion teams in the NBA and NFL. This mass investment leading into the 21st century set up the American sports system we see today, one that still pegs soccer back and is struggling to find ways to change that.
The growth in the professional markets paved the way for the creation of a tangible pipeline for youth athletes to pursue their dreams in playing in the NFL or the NBA. High schools and colleges invested much more heavily into their football and basketball programs, especially in regards to scholarships. The working relationship between each stage of development helps provide an easy (in concept) path from being a kid who loves the sport to playing in these leagues. This isn’t the case for soccer.
A middle school boy that plays all three sports is looking to pick one to pursue for high school. For football or basketball, they can join the team, try to get recruited to college, then try to get drafted into the league, as both sports obtain the majority of their players from their respective drafts.
For soccer, the pipeline isn’t as clear. The school route exists, but only 34% of MLS Superdraft picks get signed to a contract. Otherwise, players could forgo playing for their high school and pay more to play at higher level travel clubs, where they could potentially develop enough and pay enough to get exposure to professional academies.
This was a problem because for a long time, MLS and American academies were not heavily invested in. The development wasn’t enough to break through to the professional level in America, which was already being represented again by European and Latin communities.
This relatively complicated path undoubtedly drives away America’s top youth athletes, and this cycle justifies further investment in youth development in other sports, leaving soccer on the back burner when it comes to prioritizing focus.
The lack of youth development as compared to the rest of the world further discourages investment into it. The multiple missed Olympics and subpar tournament record leaves little to be desired by young American male athletes looking to pursue a career in sports.
Development now is only slightly better. MLS now has MLS Next Pro, a stop gap between expanded academy efforts and the top MLS Division. However, the big disconnect between the MLS and the USL, America’s lower professional soccer divisions, will continue to play a role in holding the sport back.
The fractured branding for the sports hinders the development. MLS has the money, the major markets, the names and players, and the beginnings of an infrastructure that can reach similar numbers of youth as these other leagues. Likewise, the USL has the communities, the history, the local connection, and the tiered system that drives a successful soccer league.
All this to say, young American male athletes are always going to be funneled to these sports that hold control in the American sports market. The money went to what was hot when money was growing, which was the NFL and NBA, and soccer was left behind.
These football and basketball paths didn’t exist for young female athletes, and they barely do now. This has created a situation where more of the top young American female athletes are funneled to soccer, where we have seen the USWNT dominance for years.
America’s best male soccer players may have never played past high school, and who knows what could happen if they did.
